Vedupari ritual held at Srirangam temple

Devotees in good numbers witnessed the ‘Thirumangaimannan Vedupari’, a holy ritual held at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam on Tuesday as part of the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival. The ritual was held on the eighth day of the ‘Raa Pathu’. 

The processional deity, Sri Namperumal, was brought in a procession on a golden ‘kudhirai vaganam’ to the ‘manal veli’ in the evening and was taken in a fast-paced procession for ‘Vaiyali Vagaira Kandarulal’. The deity was thereafter taken to the ‘Thirumamani Asthana Mandapam’.

The ritual is held to mark the blessings that the Lord conferred on Thirumangaimannan when he robbed Lord Narayana and His consort, disguised as a newly wed couple, of their valuables. According to legend, the Lord revealed himself and initiated Thirumangaimannan into the ‘Ashtakshara Mantra’. Thus he became ‘Thirumangai Aazhwar’. The episode is enacted every year as part of the ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ festival at the Srirangam temple.